Questions tagged [mistakes]
For questions involving mistakes that happen at the workplace, and to deal with the fallout or to recover from them.
75
questions
140
votes
8answers
22k views
How do I tell my boss I've accidentally been working halftime on the wrong project for the past year?
I am a QA tester, and started with my company almost a year ago.
On my second day, I got invited to a meeting to discuss a project (let's call it Project A) that was just getting started. I am the ...
30
votes
5answers
22k views
I made mistakes during a project, which has resulted in the client denying payment to my company
To give some background, I have been working in India for a company for the past four and a half years, mainly in core development (Java, JSP, and C#). At the start of 2020, I was assigned to a ...
-5
votes
1answer
300 views
Should I leave my current job?
I make a minor mistake, something very minuscule, a few times a day like a typo/template error etc. However, every few weeks or so, I make a mistake where my boss may need to confront me after ...
-4
votes
1answer
227 views
Is it common to make mistakes often at work?
I’ve been at my current job for almost two years. And it’s my first time in the field, while I have a general understanding of what the job entails, things happen and some things can fall through the ...
60
votes
9answers
17k views
How to professionally acknowledge to a client that a former coworker made a mistake in production?
I work at a tech consulting company in the US and I recently took over a project from a coworker (Bob) who got laid off. (He was mainly let go because of covid, but he wasn't the easiest to work with ...
3
votes
1answer
2k views
Concerned about not seeing my programming language in my new job
So I started a new job and so far I am seeing Java programming for developing REST APIs, but I haven't seen any JavaScript yet, which is what I was hired for.
I looked at the initial email I got from ...
6
votes
3answers
677 views
I am the sole statistician in my group, and I am scared of making mistakes
I am fresh grad statistician and I am working in the agronomy industry (first time working with this kind of data), I am doing the best the best in my knowledge to produce analysis within the given ...
78
votes
9answers
25k views
I've not performed well in my first year as technical director. What should I do next?
Summary: I've been the technical director of a project. It finished well, but I made some mistakes that I don't know I can fix easily. This also ruined my manager's trust in me. Should I go back to a ...
3
votes
3answers
1k views
Made a mistake at work. Proper tools can prevent it again but there is some obstruction
So I made a mistake at work not being thorough enough. It's my fault and I accept it.
Where I'm taking offence is that this mistake could have been preventing with basic tooling. And by basic I mean ...
1
vote
2answers
574 views
Ignoring a joke taken wrongly
Recently I was around a couple co-workers and made a joke. They took it as a joke, but took it as it having a sexual angle which I didn't mean at all. In fact, in my mind it was a huge stretch to take ...
42
votes
12answers
15k views
How should I handle multiple mistakes without losing credibility?
In short: I've made multiple mistakes in a calculation software within a year. These mistakes caused no harm whatsoever, but I'm afraid that I will lose credibility if I approach this the wrong way. I ...
-2
votes
1answer
433 views
Interviewer wrongly called and accepted me, then really accepted me
I am a backend developer with good history, knowing little about front-end. In previous weeks I wanted to switch my job. I took 3 days off, and arranged 5 or 6 interviews in those days. Interviews ...
5
votes
6answers
959 views
Dropping out from an interview for a job you don't want
Once upon a time, a temp agency sent me on a job interview. There was a miscommunication (perhaps a mental glitch on my part) about the nature of the client's business.
As soon as I became aware of ...
-2
votes
4answers
1k views
Lied on my resume about some dates and don't know how to fix it [closed]
I have been working at a new job for a couple days now but I got an email about a blip in my screening. they are asking for proof I worked a certain time at my old job. I wrote on my resume that I ...
7
votes
3answers
2k views
How to navigate an embarrassing mistake I created and recover?
asking for a friend
As part of a small project I wrote some code some months ago.
The code passed my tests, code review, UAT by business analysts and everything was fine. When the time came for me ...
11
votes
3answers
3k views
Colleague cannot put down her phone… even while teaching!
A colleague cannot put down her phone, not for a moment. She's a lecturer in English. Today I came into one of her classes, and she was holding her phone in front of her face with one hand while ...
8
votes
3answers
1k views
Should I alert my previous employer to errors I made during an internship?
I finished my very first proper internship at an engineering company (HVAC industry) a couple of months ago. I worked in sales support for the sales engineers and filled out project equipment ...
3
votes
4answers
655 views
Should I reveal my mistake after project delivery? [duplicate]
I was working on a project, as assigned by my manager. It was completed, reviewed and delivered, and is now under maintenance. While I was searching through code (for a different purpose) I realized ...
36
votes
8answers
9k views
How can I regain a professional atmosphere with someone who may have seen me misbehave? [closed]
I believe a female colleague saw me masturbating at work. I was in my office after hours with the door locked and blinds down, but I'm afraid the blinds had a crack. I am not an exhibitionist, and ...
-4
votes
3answers
985 views
Bonus error in my favor [closed]
I'm working in Europe for a big multinational company. I was promoted last year, with an increase on my base salary and bonus.
I recently received my bonus for last year. However my company just told ...
4
votes
6answers
2k views
Self-employed and messed up a client's brochure, should I still bill them?
I have been self-employed for 2 years and most of my work is in web development/general IT. I mostly work for small businesses and sometimes they need extra things like graphic design. Often my ...
6
votes
5answers
1k views
Should I make it up to my manager for making him buy something I didn't need?
I just started a new job and asked my boss to order me a USB hub about a week ago (they will order stuff you need for work). A couple days later I discovered that the monitors have built in USB plugs. ...
3
votes
2answers
228 views
How to cope with and mitigate contractor screwups? [closed]
I sometimes manage construction projects and one of the big ongoing problems is how to deal with a mistake by a contractor or subcontractor.
For example, in one case I had a piece of equipment ...
6
votes
6answers
940 views
Should I own up my own mistake in public?
I am working as a software qualify assurance engineer and partially due to my work, a bug managed to get to our production code.
Our customer service team has reported back this issue to us on Slack.
...
4
votes
6answers
960 views
Is a coworker rightfully annoyed by my typo?
I recently got chastised in an e-mail because I pasted the wrong number. She asked me for the ID number of a test run that I submitted to a server. To view details about a test run, you have to run a ...
2
votes
2answers
913 views
How do I make amends and go about apologizing to former manager(s) after being dismissed for gross misconduct?
I was fired for gross misconduct , and want to apologize to my former mangers as I didn't see them at all during my last days at the company. Should i ring/message them to ask to meet face to face to ...
8
votes
6answers
3k views
Am I being overly critical and unfair to my coworker or is she being entitled?
About a year ago my boss was fired, and I was put in his place as a new manager. Our team was already understaffed, so I ended up doing several jobs, including team lead, project lead and PM for a big ...
5
votes
2answers
717 views
Made a mistake that really annoyed a coworker. Should I attempt to explain myself or just leave it be?
I had an issue that I needed a DBA's help with. I went to my go-to DBA (DBA#1), since he's usually been friendly and receptive to my questions. He gave me his recommendation, and I logged a ticket for ...
-4
votes
2answers
672 views
How to overcome lunch-break embarrassing incident? [closed]
I was sitting on a table in the lunch room when I started coughing, which to my utter embarrassment resulted in a disgusting sound. Unfortunately, there were other colleagues having lunch near me, who ...
0
votes
1answer
2k views
Forgot to mention subject in my letter, what should I do? [closed]
I forgot to specify subject for my letter. I already apply macros for my Outlook so I will not do this again. Is there something I should do for this sent email?
3
votes
4answers
2k views
Should I withdraw my job application after discovering an unacceptable mistake?
My girlfriend submitted a job application to a big international organization based in the EU. After sending in the final application, she realized she made a shameful mistake in the name of the ...
2
votes
3answers
876 views
I started a new job, and I hate it. Should I ask to be moved?
I'm a little lost and looking for help. I recently started a new position within my organization and I am really uncomfortable. Luckily, I work for a company that allows folks in a certain program (...
-1
votes
1answer
4k views
I made a mistake in signing a birthday card
My coworker who is my mentor and we have a very formal relationship just gave me his birthday card to sign and left. I signed it whilst wishing a happy birthday to the wrong person. I then, instead of ...
0
votes
1answer
407 views
Made mistake by doing independent contracting, how soon can I go back to old job?
I recently left my job at Company A where I was working on separate contracts to Companies B and C. Now I'm an independent subcontractor to Company B. I left because I wanted to work less hours, work ...
13
votes
4answers
2k views
How to handle a boss that I believe is non-maliciously setting me up for failure?
I have been working with a company for about 6 months, with the job title of software engineer/support specialist. So far, I have done very little software work, but that was initially expected.
The ...
6
votes
5answers
5k views
Accidentally upset coworker, how to mend this situation?
Backstory
I've been working at this office for about 3 months now and everything seems to be going smooth. During our company's time allocated for sports while we were standing with ~12 people on the ...
3
votes
3answers
312 views
Senior developer and design review feedback [closed]
I've been working in the software industry for around 7 years with above average skills. I have worked on many smaller projects, contributing at every layer end to end.
I was asked to work on the low ...
1
vote
1answer
882 views
Mistake in years of work in resume [duplicate]
I have made a mistake in my resume. I have worked in one company on different positions. I have written in the resume wrong years for two consequent positions, but not the latest one within the ...
10
votes
1answer
1k views
Lost important office documents. How to properly handle the situation?
I found out that some important office documents have gone missing from my custody. I am responsible for the lost documents. What should I do in this situation?
60
votes
13answers
17k views
Is using internet proxies a sackable offence? [closed]
I'm based in the UK and am about six months into my first job as an Apprentice Software Dev, and came straight into it from college. All through high school and college we would easily bypass the ...
-1
votes
1answer
397 views
How should I rectify wrong information on my resume, when I already received the offer?
I received an offer from a company via a competitive coding contest. The information that was conveyed through my resume was slightly wrong by mistake. Instead of having an overall experience of 3.5 ...
4
votes
3answers
3k views
Gross misconduct and being a scapegoat [closed]
Context: In employment for a small London based software engineering company (3 employees including me) for 18 months now. No previous warnings or grievances or disciplinary procedures.
I was due ...
0
votes
3answers
1k views
How do I get past a stupid mistake I made at company event?
I've made a stupid mistake at a company event (nothing to do with work, but the whole crew was there).
Here's what I did: I've decided to stream an event using a live stream from the Internet and a ...
9
votes
5answers
8k views
How to deal with a coworker which keeps pointing out a mistake I made?
At some point I made a mistake which made a certain feature of our app fail. This got mentioned in the next team meeting by QA, but in a really aggressive and threatening way (as in "This simply can't ...
-2
votes
2answers
630 views
How to deal with a huge workplace mistake? [closed]
So, I asked for time off a little over a month ago for the Friday after Thanksgiving and I was under the impression that my boss said he would cover my shift. Yesterday, I texted him to remind him ...
-4
votes
2answers
351 views
How to handle a manager who always complains [closed]
Few months backs my project was changed and I was moved to a new team. It is a small team and I was the only person who was new to the framework we were going to work.
The first month I was assigned ...
-3
votes
2answers
2k views
How to reduce mistakes at work? [closed]
I've been working as a statistician in a governmental institution for over 8 years. I have master degree in economics I'm known for my good behaviours, intelligent and skills. Everyone who has a ...
237
votes
9answers
56k views
How can I inform my boss that I may have been hired by mistake?
I was hired at my current workplace just over a month ago. During the interview process, I found out that someone I knew from university was also interviewing for the position. I'll call him Jim. Jim ...
-1
votes
3answers
492 views
I accidentally submitted sub-optimal application to an employer and can't retract it; What do I do?
I was exploring the job-application portal for a particular employer I am very interested in and foolishly decided to see what the application process was like by "starting" an application, assuming ...
-3
votes
2answers
387 views
Accidentally gave inaccurate information regarding my notice period in a phone interview
During a phone interview I was nervous and mistakenly told the interviewer that I was currently serving my notice period, however it actually finished one month ago. Is this likely to cause a problem ...
